What if robots and automation systems were not limited by onboard computation,
memory, or programming? This is now possible with wireless networking and
rapidly expanding Internet resources. In 2010, James Kuffner at Google
introduced the term "Cloud Robotics" to describe a new approach to robotics that
takes advantage of the Internet as a resource for massively parallel computation
and sharing of vast data resources.
The Google autonomous driving project exemplifies this approach: the system
indexes maps and images that are collected and updated by satellite, Streetview,
and crowdsourcing to facilitate accurate localization. Another example is Kiva
Systems new approach to warehouse automation and logistics using large numbers
of mobile platforms to move pallets using a local network to coordinate
planforms and update tracking data. These are just two new projects that build
on resources from the Cloud.
Steve Cousins of Willow Garage aptly summarized the idea: "No robot is an
island." Cloud Robotics recognizes the wide availability of networking,
incorporates elements of open-source, open-access, and crowdsourcing to greatly
extend earlier concepts of "Online Robots" and "Networked Robots".
Cloud Robotics has potential to improve performance in at least five ways: 1)
Big Data: indexing a global library of images, maps, and object data, 2) Cloud
Computing: parallel grid computing on demand for statistical analysis, learning,
and motion planning, 3) Open-Source / Open-Access: humans sharing code, data,
algorithms, and hardware designs, 4) Collective Robot Learning: robots sharing
trajectories, control policies, and outcomes, and 5) Crowdsourcing and call
centers: offline and on-demand human guidance for evaluation, learning, and
error recovery.